I assumed that the first box was for SE, definitely wasn't strikingly horrible, this new one though... such garbage, matches perfectly with the rest of the art in the game. I suppose it could be a humorous conversation piece, assume that people who buy it have friends over

I'm still holding off on pre-ordering this for now, but I'll probably give in eventually.

_________________"I've had quite a few pcbs of Fire Shark over time, and none of them cost me over £30 - so it won't break the bank by any standards." ~Malc

Okay, as long as the original cover is still the SE cover, I'll be more inclined to buy it.

Come on now, you're mulling over whether or not to buy the game based on the COVER? Who the fuck cares? The game is awesome. If the cover sucks just stick it in a drawer when it arrives. DDPDOJBLEX has the ugliest cover I've ever seen on any game in my entire life, but something as silly as that wouldn't stop me from buying and playing the awesome game inside the case.

I like good package design. :/ Being a graphics whore extends to the cover of the game to a certain extent as well.And yeah, that DOJBLEX cover is the pits, but at least it's not the sort of thing you feel the need to hide.

I describe it as "30% Deathsmiles, 50% Galuda 2, and 20% Soukyuugurentai". Percentages may vary from player to player, but the mix of those three games in DSII is pretty apparent to anyone who has spent some time with it and knows how to score. Quick summary:

Basically you get your counter up to 1000 and your multiplier up to 10,000 (or as close as possible) by absorbing red and blue rings. Shot gives you red rings that build up your counter, while laser gives you blue rings that build up your multiplier (some characters have it reversed). There's a proximity effect in this similar to the one in Galuda 2 and MFBL. Press A+B to go into fever (like DS), and you can use shot or laser to leech skulls off enemies and you won't have any suicide bullets to deal with. For high scoring, though, you need to use your lock-shot on groups of multiple enemies, often in the background (a la Soukyuugurentai). When they die they release slow homing suicide bullets (a la Galuda 2's zesshikai mode). When you let off lock shot these suicide bullets are converted to skulls. Time a lock shot right as the counter goes back down to 0, when there are lot of suicide bullets on the screen, and you can instantly respawn it back up to 1000 and go right back into fever mode (similar to the recharge technique in Deathsmiles, but much easier). Rinse and repeat. You can do the 'recharge' over and over in some levels (dozens of times), unlike DS where you could only do it once or twice in a level. It gives the game a very fast pace, and smooth rhythm.

There are no bouncing skulls (that break into smaller skulls) to deal with as in DS. You just absorb everything you can. Skulls you miss just fall off the screen.

In regard to leeching skulls off enemies with your shot, some characters can do this more effectively than others. Lei is the best at this, and he plays much differently from the other characters due to this. You can go through some stages with Lei just doing this and score well.

Your multiplier and counter carry over from stage to stage, but they max at 10,000 and 1000, respectively (just like the original DS). If you die you only lose 10% of your multiplier, which is quite nice. Your multiplier does not reset to zero when you exit fever mode, as it does in DS. It stays the same.

There is more to it, and there are some more advanced scoring techniques you can use with each character, but that's the gist of it.Here's an all-clear run with Casper, showing all of this stuff in action:

@EOJ - thanks for the quick guide - does sound good, looking forward to playing it - I'll just have to learn to love those graphics.@everyone else - get over the damn cover, it's just a... cover. Draw your own.

Why does the LE box art always look like shit compared to the standard edition? Do they actually want people to buy the LE ones or not?

Normally the SE is the arcade art and the LE is an original image. In this case both are original images and both are a bit shit so it doesn't really matter which you get. The new boy is a little too prominent a character on the SE box for me (12 year old cross dressing children is really a bit too grotesque - the heterosexual pedo imagery was bad enough.)

Funny how Deathsmiles has progressed in terms of artworks:

Little witches - no big deal:

Bit more of Sakura in BL, raising the age slightly and looking pretty cool:

Kids cuddling in a bed of roses...hmm.

Age range takes a nosedive. How long before she turns up on a fuck pillow?

Add one sexually confused boy into the mix in a loli dress and stick em in the bedroom:

Someone should make a nice slip cover for DS2X, or just the front part, so you can slip it into the regular case on top of the actual box art. No more angry spouses/confused worried-about-soon-to-be-pedophiles in the West.

I say it is just a brilliant play on Cave's part. Deathsmiles sold the best out of the past 3 releases and it was region locked. Probably some otaku bought it on fetish alone, and Cave wants to replicate those sales. In the end its just box art.

Someone should make a nice slip cover for DS2X, or just the front part, so you can slip it into the regular case on top of the actual box art. No more angry spouses/confused worried-about-soon-to-be-pedophiles in the West.